MTV2 and Logo TV Chief reveals how he rejuvenated the channels in 3 steps

What does it take to cut through the hundreds of cable channels
available today?

Viacom executive Chris McCarthy was faced with answering those
questions when it came to reinvigorating a young, male audience
for MTV2 as it neared its 20th anniversary and revitalizing gay
trailblazer Logo TV after nearly a decade on-air.

"While the brands seem very, very different, and they are, from a
brand perspective — one is young guys, and the other one is
gays and gay culture," McCarthy — MTV2, MTVu, and Logo TV's
general manager — told Business Insider. "From a business
perspective, they share a lot in common, more than most people
would probably think."

And the results are pretty impressive. Only three cable networks
have actually increased their audience over the past eight
quarters. MTV2 and Logo are two of them. This quarter alone MTV2
is pacing toward another year of growth after earning its highest
ratings ever over 2014. Meanwhile, Logo is currently experiencing
its highest ratings ever, after already achieving a 50%
increase over the past six quarters.

McCarthy credits those accomplishments to some relatively simple
(and sort of iconoclastic) changes in the way those cable
channels do business.

"One is just the culture. We
operate both of the brands like a start-up rather than a legacy
cable model," McCarthy said. "So, we break the rules. We don’t
have any traditional greenlight process. It’s anywhere from 30
days to three months from concept to air."

The new startup mindset has
allowed the networks to become more experimental. They can cut
down the six to nine-month process to get a pilot to screen by
just releasing the pilot as a special, or as a short test season.
They get quicker audience feedback, can decide what changes to
make if they move on to another season or just let the special or
pilot season stand as it is with no renewal.

"It actually allows us to be
quicker, faster, doubling down on things that are working, and
quickly move past things that aren’t," McCarthy explained. "It’s
that start-up mentality where we fail fast, we fail
forward."

For example, Logo's makeover
show "Secret Guide to Fabulous" (which is produced by Kelly Ripa
and husband Mark Consuelos) premiered as a six-episode pilot
season. After that run, the creative team "tinkered with it" and
will bring it back this summer for another season.

2.) Decentralize the
creative process.

Nick Cannon came to MTV2
to relaunch "Wild N' Out."MTV2

"The second thing is our
creative and our talent, and that’s both on and off the screen,"
the GM said. "So from our interns to our talent on-air, everyone
pitches ideas, and everybody makes them and actually gets to
market them. Both groups are structured very horizontally, and
it’s a little bit like a creative collective."

This is one of the reasons Nick
Cannon approached MTV2 with bringing back his hip-hop improv
series "Wild N' Out" with a few changes.

"He did that, because he knows
we’ll give him the creative freedom to create the show in the way
that he wants to," McCarthy pointed out.

But, the the system doesn't
just work for those with already established
names. "We take
pitches from production companies, but oftentimes, most of our
content is developed internally," McCarthy said.

"The third piece is we’ve
created demand, and I think this really applies for any
industry," McCarthy described, "If you think about the actual
content space as a whole, the world has enough content, and had
enough content. But what we were able to do with these brands is
create an audience demand by taking sort of an audience desire
and tapping into it."

Since McCarthy took charge of
MTV2 in 2009, networks were abandoning the young male audience.
NBCUniversal shuttered G4, Comedy Central and Spike TV went
broader and Esquire targeted an older male demographic.

"People had sort of felt like
young guys are too hard to get, go after," McCarthy, who has used
comedy to attract young male viewers to MTV2, recalled. "And
instead we said, 'No, we’re going to develop specifically for
them,' and we brought them back to television."

Logo had a different problem
that called for a similar solution. Gay rights, specifically
marriage rights, gained support in the U.S. TV had begun to
increase the amount of gay characters on shows. Many wondered if
there's even a need for a channel geared toward gay viewers
anymore.

"We said, 'No, it’s the
reverse.' We double down on it, and the results are showing,
we’re up almost 50 percent," McCarthy
said. "No one’s
telling a 360 degree angle on that character. We’re telling every
side of the character, and it’s not just checking off a box,
having a gay character. Our characters and our stories are
centered around that."

"Banana" and "Cucumber"
explore the current state of gay
relationships.Logo

Its new programming aims to reflect gay lives and history. Logo
has moved into scripted programming with "Cucumber" and "Banana,"
two interlocking series created by "Doctor Who" producer and
"Queer as Folk" creator Russel T. Davies, which earned the
network's highest ratings for a new series (with the help of a
lead-in from "RuPaul's Drag Race").

Logo has also created a
documentary division that launched with "Orange Is the New Black"
star's "Laverne Cox Presents the
T-Word." The
channel's deep dive into gay culture included its "Trailblazers"
special, a rare celebration of LGBT heroes, and "Cocktails and
Classics," which takes an inside look at movies that have become
gay cult classics like "Valley of the Dolls," "Auntie Mame," and
"Steel Magnolias."

"With gay characters happening
all over television, there was really an opportunity to
re-position the network back to being the home of gays," he
said.